A cagey way to combat busy beavers in Massachusetts

Thursday

Jun 21, 2007 at 12:01 AMJun 21, 2007 at 9:13 PM

The beavers, or "Little People," as Native Americans once called them, don't know that professionals from Beaver Solutions drove across the state Wednesday morning to install a piping system to help alleviate beaver-related problems - and town officials are counting on that.

By Joyce Kelly

Oblivious to all the meetings held, complaints made, backyards flooded, and steps taken to mitigate the effects of their handiwork, area beavers will probably continue building their dams tonight.

The beavers, or "Little People," as Native Americans once called them, don't know that professionals from Beaver Solutions drove across the state Wednesday morning to install a piping system to help alleviate beaver-related problems - and town officials are counting on that.

Michael Callahan, owner of Beaver Solutions, Board of Health Vice Chairman Richard Maccagnano, Conservation Commissioners, and MSPCA workers waded through swampy, algae-covered water to begin installing beaver deceivers - a piping system to control the water level of part of a brook between Fiske and Central streets and behind Bullard Street.

The sound and feel of running water stimulates beavers to build dams; well-designed dam pipes create a permanent leak in the beaver dam and prevent beavers from detecting the flow of water into the pipe, according to Callahan.

"It tricks them into thinking they're plugging a dam, but they're really not," Maccagnano said. Such devices protect residents from flooded yards and America's largest rodent, the beaver, from death traps.

The device will also act to lower the water level by six inches to help eliminate flooding, Maccagnano said.

Workers place the pipe through the beavers' dam, then repack material around the pipe, effectively putting the dam back together, because beavers will plug it back up again, he said.

"When the beavers go out there tonight, they'll know something is wrong, so Mike Callahan broke a little hole in the dam. They won't be concerned with the pipes - they'll be concerned with the hole, they'll be busy plugging the hole," Maccagnano said.

Meanwhile, beavers get comfortable with the piping, he said.

"If the beavers are occupied, they kind of go with it," said Maccagnano.

In Holliston, like many MetroWest communities, an "explosion" in the beaver population has resulted from a law enacted in 1996 prohibiting body-grip death traps, resulting in bigger and better beaver dams - and lots of flooding.

The Legislature has since given local boards of health the authority to grant permits to alleviate beaver-related problems that pose a threat to public health or safety.

To avoid killing the beavers, officials hired Beaver Solutions, of Southampton, to find more humane ways to deal with flooding and problems associated with beavers' dam-building, Maccagnano said.

Native Americans greatly respected beavers partly due to their ability to significantly alter habitat to suit their needs, according to Callahan.

They have a highly organized social structure, and young beavers appear to play and wrestle with younger siblings, and improve their building skills by watching parents and older siblings, according to Callahan. Beavers are typically timid, peaceful and social animals with strong family structures, he said. Though their dam-building can create problems, beavers also provide benefits to humans, the environment and endangered species, Callahan said.

Beavers help people by recharging drinking water, removing pollutants from surface and groundwater, decreasing erosion, protecting areas from drought, and decreasing damaging floods, according to Callahan. They also provide food for fish and other animals, preserve open space, and support biodiversity, including 43 percent of America's endangered species, he said.

Holliston will pay about $2,200 to fight beaver-related problems this year, Maccagnano said.

Officials were particularly concerned about flooding that has occurred within 400 feet of well number five, off Central Street, Maccagnano said.

Callahan will return in two weeks to assess the brook's water level and evaluate a problem area off South Street, Maccagnano said.

"This is absolutely the best thing that could happen: keep the beavers here without having to remove them from the area, let the wetlands remain, and keep the water level where it won't threaten any property," said Maccagnano.